Oops! Trump Spotted Outside the Courtroom Editing Stooges’ Speeches

Donald Trump has had some of his political cronies show up at his hush-money trial. And it turns out he has been editing what they would say on his behalf, a seemingly obvious violation of his gag order.

One of the journalists covering the trial says the former president was “editing” and “making notations” to the speeches his allies made outside of the courtroom Tuesday.

“In court yesterday, actually, I was sitting close enough that I could actually look over Trump’s shoulder and see what he was reading. At one point he was actually reading the quotes that these individuals were—and going through and making notations with a pen on the paper,” New York magazine contributing editor Andrew Rice said on MSNBC Tuesday.

“While Michael Cohen was testifying against him, he was actually going and going through and annotating and editing the quotes that these people were going to say,” Rice added.

This roundabout effort by pro-Trump surrogates to try and get around the gag order was also noticed by his former White House communications director Michael Dubke.

“They have the ability to say the things that Donald Trump has been wanting to say but has basically been struck down 10 times for saying,” Dubke said on CNN Tuesday. “So this is one way to get around the gag order.”

Trump seemed to be careful not to say he was directing anyone to speak on his behalf, dodging a reporter’s direct question about it Tuesday. However, it was plainly obvious to observers that something was going on when Speaker of the House Mike Johnson attempted to defend Trump by discrediting the legitimacy of the judicial branch and even attacking Judge Juan Merchan’s daughter.

Trump’s gag order prohibits him not only from attacking court staff, jurors, prosecutors, witnesses, or their families but also from directing others to do so on his behalf. Trump’s actions yesterday would seem to be a new violation. The former president has already been fined $10,000 for violating the order and has been warned that new ones would send him to prison.

Trump has been charged with 34 felony counts for allegedly falsifying business records with the intent to further an underlying crime by using Cohen to pay off adult film actress Stormy Daniels to cover up an affair before the 2016 election. The Republican presidential nominee has pleaded not guilty on all counts.